Interview w/Edward Castronova

scubacuda writes "/.ers interested in the recent editorial on real $ in MMORPGs might also be interested in a GrepLaw interview I just conducted with Edward Castranova (expert witness in the recent Black Hat Hacker Court) about how his work on synthetic economies affects larger law and policy issues on the Internet. Ted has some interesting thoughts, particularly how online game-based economics (Star Wars Galaxies, EverQuest, Lineage, etc.) will eventually serve as the bases for "real governments." Should mainstream economics journals take his work on gender and virtual economies seriously, Ted promises to eat his virtual hat."

Comments

Aw mom, I don't want to play EQ!

[Sage Gaspar]

I have mixed reactions about analyzing MMORPGs as microcosms of the real world. First thing, half of the people playing them are below the age of 25 and a significant amount below 18, and almost all are drawn from middle to upper class backgrounds. The account names given with the credit card numbers might say otherwise (how often do kids under 13 check the "I'm a kid under 13" box?), but I'm not buying it. Secondly, the MMORPG market is still one specific sector of gamers, despite their success. The pool of players behind the characters does not include a proportionate amount of elderly people, non-technophiles, and the less nerdy. Yes, there are a lot of examples to the contrary, but in general you're drawing your players from the nerdy youths of the populace. So any speculations made about society based on MMORPGs can only really be used to accurately predict how a stereotypically (and in reality) more socially inept and fiscally sound portion of the population will react in a given situation. Additionally, I would hate to see MMORPGs turned into work. They're already moving that way with account and character selling, plus the leveling treadmill already in place to hook in addicts. I can see this going in a bad direction. "Billy, your sister made $500 selling her Dark Elf Cleric on EQ2 last week! Why aren't you working as hard as she is?" "Aw, mom, I just want to go outside and play! Don't make me go on EverQuest again!"

Re:Aw mom, I don't want to play EQ!

[Dachannien]

They're not microcosms of the *entire* real world. But they are microcosms of a part of society - the part that isn't all that far removed from the readers of Slashdot. To ignore the opportunity to study a socially semi-isolated population altogether, given the proper caveats, would be silly.

Besides, the differences between the general populace and that represented in MMOGs is already known.

Re:Aw mom, I don't want to play EQ!

[Swanktastic]

I have mixed reactions about analyzing MMORPGs as microcosms of the real world.

I think you're absolutely right about this. Just about the most important discovery you could ever make about synthetic economies is that a principal that applies in the real world also applies to these possible microcosms... On the other hand, you couldn't EVER extrapolate what you learned from say SWG's economy to our real economy because there's such a statistical bias in the sample/population.

Add to this the fact that economists nailed down just about every single aspect relating to an economy as simple as those existing in MMORPG's. There are NONE of the elements that make an economy complex beyond what you learn in Econ 101. Essentially what you have is a pre-medieval market system that facilitates the exchange of goods and services. 18th Century Economists had this stuff licked.

Granted, it's a curiousity that, yes, some economic principles exhibit themselves in these online worlds, but how great could these principles really be if they didn't? I mean this kind of research is about as groundbreaking as going into an elementary school and finding that the resale value of Lunchables fluctuates based on when kids get their allowance.

Re:Wikipedia entry on synthetic economies

[Saeger]

The value of a good is determined by its users

In the case of a game, goods only have value if the creators made the choice to make virtual goods artificially scarce, since that's what people are used to in the real world at the present point in time.

What would be interesting is to see a game model a post-nanotech economy of abundance, where any object can be copied almost as easily and cheaply as data. What would be valuable then would be the fundamental scarcities: space, energy, time, and intelligence.

So in this game an instance of an object itself doesn't have much value (hey, like an mp3), but the entity (NPC AI or human) who is capable of providing the service of designing newer and better objects and experiences, is. I suppose the rest of the game would be territorial fights over the best gameworld realestate, and competing to create the best things.

some scenarios: 1) "Hey, 3 wenches and 50 acres of land for anyone who kidnaps the player known as 'FrankLloyWright' to do killer architecture for our glorious l33td00ds-with-big-guns Kingdom!"

2) "Damn! The chinese are stealing more than their fair share of the solar slice! Destroy 1% of their panels in the mercury orbit. Why can't we all just get along?"

3) "Those evil arabs are squatting on large hydrocarbon deposits! they're evil, and it's manifest destiny for us to take it! We'll use the hydrogen in our fuelcells, and the carbon to build yet another space elevator!"

Man, this post just didnt come out the way I wanted it to, and 3 beers doesn't count as a PUI (Posting Under the Influence). :)

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